Satan Claus

A coworker was telling me a story recently, about when her son was very young and attending a Lutheran school. Her family isn’t religious, but they sent him there because the public schools near them weren’t very good. Like many schools used to do, they would put on an annual Christmas pageant. She said the pageant was cute at first, with all of the kids dressed in costume and singing and acting out short vignettes with a holiday theme. Later in the show, however, they had a young child come onto the stage in a devil costume. He had horns, a pointy tail, and a pitchfork – the whole nine yards. Upon reaching center stage, he was swarmed by other children who pelted him incessantly with Nerf balls. My coworker was a little taken aback by this, and felt bad for the kid playing the devil. This (among other things) led her to the decision not to reenroll her child at that school.

Now that I have a son on the way, I can only hope that someday he’ll have the opportunity to play the devil in a similar school production. I’m pretty sure this is what as known as “living vicariously through your children.” I never got to do this myself, which has led me to the conclusion that I had an incomplete childhood. Oh, and I promise to put it on a Christmas card if it ever happens.